This Week In Crypto 18/06/2018-22/06/2018

Monday 18/06/2018

New York Grants Another License to Bitcoin App Square

New York has approved fintech startup Square to operate in the state, enabling its users to buy and sell bitcoin. The following have received BitLicenses from The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) : Circle was granted the 1st BitLicense, Ripple was awarded the 2nd BitLicense, Coinbase was awarded the 3rd BitLicense, bitFlyer was awarded the 4th BitLicense, Genesis Global Trading was awarded the 5th BitLicense, Xapo was awarded the 6th BitLicense and Square was awarded the most recent and 7th BitLicense.

Tuesday 19/06/2018

Japan’s Biggest Crypto Exchanges Will See Regulator’s Warnings

A handful of major Japanese exchanges including bitFlyer, Japan’s biggest and best-funded crypto trading platform, are facing business improvement orders from the country’s financial regulator and watchdog. A failure to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines will see at least five cryptocurrency exchange operators receive ‘business improvement orders’ from Japan’s Financial Services Agency.

Wednesday 20/06/2018

Controversial cryptocurrency startup Tether has released a “transparency update” indicating that its dollar-pegged USDT token, which had a $2.55 billion market cap as of June 1, is fully backed by physical dollars deposited in two separate banks. The report’s release came just one week after researchers at the University of Texas (Griffins and Shams) published an explosive paper suggesting that USDT had been used as a tool to manipulate the bitcoin price during last year’s bull run.

Winklewoss Twins Secure Another Patent

Crypto exchange Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have long sought the creation of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The patent, awarded on June 19, details a method for providing an exchange-traded product holding digital math-based assets as well as the issuance of shares tied to that ETP. It adds to the body of intellectual property the Winklevosses have sought to obtain, though it’s not entirely clear when or how the concepts will be applied to real-world products. The Winklevoss brothers won a patent last month for a system that settles transactions for ETPs tied to cryptocurrencies.

Thursday 21/06/2018

UK Exchange Crypto Facilities Launches Litecoin Futures Trading

A cryptocurrency futures trading platform based in the UK called: Crypto Facilities is launching a new futures product allowing traders to take positions on Litecoin futures. Crypto Facilities current derivates offering includes Bitcoin, Ripple, and Ethereum futures, with Litecoin being the newest addition.

Bloomberg Adds HB10 Crypto Market Index

Financial data firm Bloomberg is now providing the HB10 crypto market index launched by crypto exchange Huobi on its terminal service. Users of Bloomberg Terminal are now able to track the aggregated performance of the top-10 cryptocurrencies that are traded on Huobi Pro which is now the third largest exchange in the world by trading volume based on data taken from CoinMarketCap.

Friday 22/06/2018

Bitfinex Chief Strategy Officer Leaves Crypto Exchange

Phil Potter the chief strategy officer for cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, has reportedly left the company. Reuters reported Friday that Potter, who is also a director of the ‘stablecoin’ issuing company Tether, will be temporarily replaced by Jan Ludovicus van der Velde, Bitfinex’s CEO. This news follows days after controversial cryptocurrency startup Tether released a “transparency update” conducted by Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan LLP.

Mt. Gox Case Moved to Civil Rehabilitation, Creditors May Be Paid in Crypto

Creditors holding bitcoins at infamous cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox may recover their funds, after all, a court has ruled. According to a document posted on the Mt. Gox website, the Tokyo District Court on Friday approved a petition to move the company out of criminal bankruptcy and into civil rehabilitation. The exchange was hacked for more than $473 million back in 2014. The theft remained the largest in the industry’s history until the Coincheck hack in January 2018. The theft left Mt. Gox insolvent, and it was forced into criminal bankruptcy in Japan, where it was headquartered.

Bitcoin Price Analysis

Bitcoin opening up at a price of $6445.00 on 18.06.2018 saw us move sideways for majority of the week. This changed significantly on Friday 22.06.2018 when Bitcoin saw downward momentum hitting weekly lows of $5920.00.

As the daily Bitcoin chart (23.06.2018) above suggests, if price action rallies up from $5900 we could potentially have a chart pattern called a Double Bottom from where the blue area is highlighted. If we look left historically we can see price action had tested $5900 previously which is circled in yellow, where price had rebounded and rallied up from this zone of support. However in the grand scheme of things Bitcoin is still in a downtrend making a series of Lower Highs and Lower Lows. If price action continues to break below $5900 we have a high probability of heading towards our first Fibonacci target of $5000.